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matt56231
 Post subject: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 23rd, 2015, 14:54 
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Joined: March 23rd, 2015, 5:41
Posts: 21
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Could some sysop or moderator check to see what has become of the 1st message I posted to this forum some 9 hours ago? It was approved and was listed here within 10 -15 minutes of posting. But then I edited one word in it to correct spelling, and the following window said the message had to be approved again.
Kind Thanks
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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 23rd, 2015, 18:50 
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Joined: March 23rd, 2015, 5:41
Posts: 21
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If it helps, the subject was: "Can HDD accidentally reformatted be made bootable?"

And the original link was: http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30790&e=0

This was 1st time I haven't saved a copy of an online forum post after I composed it in long time. :roll:
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 23rd, 2015, 19:17 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 15529
Location: Australia
I found your post in my cache. I can't see any reason why it would have been deleted intentionally, so I'm assuming that its deletion was accidental. Anyway I hope I haven't upset anyone by reposting it.

Quote:
Hi folks. I wonder if I could get some feedback on whether or not it might be able to make a hard drive bootable again.

The problem child is a 500GB NTFS drive with an NTFS Windows 7 OS on a single partition that booted the system. That partition was accidentally deleted with GParted in Linux booted from a flash drive. A new partition was created in its place, and then a quick-format NTFS file system created. The system has since never been booted into Windows to insure no data on the 500GB HDD would be overwritten.

The drive was imaged. At that point GetDataBack for NTFS on a BartPE boot disk was able to locate one of many MFTs that was able to read most, or perhaps all of the data on the drive. That data was recovered to another drive.

Testdisk was able to find one MFT partition table that listed data contents, and write it as the primary bootable MFT. But the drive wouldn't boot at that point. It turned out that although all of the original root folders on the drive were visible from a file manager after booting the system into Linux, no files or subdirectories were listed in any of them except for the very topmost folder.

So the question for the learned folks in these forums is whether or not there is anything that might be done at this point that could restore the MFT that GetDataBack is finding, and make the drive bootable again?

Thanks for any feedback on this.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.
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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 23rd, 2015, 20:07 
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Posts: 21
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fzabkar wrote:
I found your post in my cache. I can't see any reason why it would have been deleted intentionally, so I'm assuming that its deletion was accidental. Anyway I hope I haven't upset anyone by reposting it.

This is where people are into data recovery. Thanks so very much for recovering and posting that fzabkar. I guess I should just let the issue roll in this thread and hope for some feedback.
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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 23rd, 2015, 23:28 
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Joined: March 23rd, 2015, 5:41
Posts: 21
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I replied thanking fzabkar and saying I'll check this thread for responses to my original message fzabkar retrieved for me. But again I got a window after submitting the reply saying it needed to be reviewed and approved before it would appear. And that post hasn't shown up.

I''ll try posting this now and see if it gets through.
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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 23rd, 2015, 23:33 
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Posts: 21
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Okay... that last message of mine got posted. Hopefully someone can read through my original post that fzabkar re-posted above, and offer some feedback.
Thanks.
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dick
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 24th, 2015, 5:00 
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Joined: January 8th, 2008, 5:21
Posts: 925
Location: uk
The likely problem is the drive might have some bad media/sectors.
It is really important in a case like this to make a complete cloned image of your 500gb drive. Either to a second drive or to a file. Then you would run a full scan on the image and recover your files using any standard recovery software.

I have to warn you in advance....if you don't know how to check a drives condition before you start cloning there is a chance the drive might die during the process and make the drive either unrecoverable or more costly to recover from. That is why people here often say go to a pro, even if it is just to get advice. Good luck!
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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 24th, 2015, 12:52 
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Joined: March 23rd, 2015, 5:41
Posts: 21
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Thanks for your thoughts on this dick. As I pointed out, the drive has been imaged and most, if not all of the data has been successfully recovered. Testdisk only located 2 MFTs. The one MFT that listed data with Testdisk's 'P' option was written as bootable.

After that point it turned out that Testdisk and a Linux file manager only see data in the very topmost root folder of the drive. They see the rest of the root folders as empty. So Windows won't boot the drive.

However I can still boot the system from a BartPE disk and GetDataBack for NTFS will quickly find a good MFT that lists data in all of the drives root folders without doing a lengthy cluster by cluster search.

But I don't know of any software other than Testdisk that can locate the good backup MFT GetDataBack is seeing, and write it as the main bootable partition table.

I've booted the system with the Windows 7 installation disk and attempted to have chkdsk correct file system problems. But chkdsk complains that it can't find any data in any of the OS's root folders.
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dick
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 24th, 2015, 14:55 
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Posts: 925
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Quote:
But I don't know of any software other than Testdisk that can locate the good backup MFT GetDataBack is seeing, and write it as the main bootable partition table.
Dmde is a good tool for this. Use with caution!
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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 24th, 2015, 16:45 
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dick wrote:
Dmde is a good tool for this. Use with caution!

Thanks for the suggestion Dick. I downloaded and ran it on the drive in Linux. But it's not seeing all the data GetDataBack for NTFS v4.33 is finding.
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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 24th, 2015, 20:13 
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Posts: 21
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Some of my messages are posted here instantly. Others take many hours to get reviewed and approved.

This will probably end up being a duplicate reply to Dick... but I wanted people to know I did download and run dmde. It only found the 2 MFTs as Testdisk did. I'm still trying to find some way to find and restore the one GetDataBack for NTFS has located.
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Dmitry Postrigan
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 24th, 2015, 20:45 
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Joined: September 27th, 2005, 8:21
Posts: 765
Sorry folks, this forum is currently hit with a lot more spam than usual, so the filter is a little bit aggressive. But all "good" posts are eventually approved.

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matt56231
 Post subject: Re: My post seems to be lost
PostPosted: March 24th, 2015, 22:05 
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Joined: March 23rd, 2015, 5:41
Posts: 21
Location: United States
Dmitry Postrigan wrote:
Sorry folks, this forum is currently hit with a lot more spam than usual, so the filter is a little bit aggressive. But all "good" posts are eventually approved.
Having dealt with a few nightmare scenarios related to email account hacking, I can really appreciate the endless fight against all the spam these days Dmitry. Kudos to you for the many hours you put into maintaining these forums.
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